Well it’s Wednesday here and I’ve been very slack in posting an update on the Goodguys show, I guess that’s because we got into LA on Sunday and have been just cruising since – having a few beers, sitting by the pool, doing the shopping before heading back and generally lazing around. There were plenty of good looking cars at the west coast nationals even though we were there for the Friday, with the main event on Saturday, and lots of vendors trying to sell stuff as well. The swapmeet was a bit of an average affair with not a lot available and what there was seemed to be priced high – although again this may have been due to us having a look before the main day.
Once in LA we’ve been to the Peterson Museum which is well worth a visit as they have plenty of historic race cars, hot rods and every day drivers along with interactive things for the kids to do (if you have some), a great selection of caravans and the first motorhomes were also interesting along with the batmobile, car from grease, herbie and other movie ‘stars’ as well.

After the museum we took a drive through Hollywood along Rodeo Drive and Sunset Strip – had a few people on the street say ‘Oh my god’ and take a photo of us cruising past. Little did they know it was no one famous, just some kiwis having a look around!!
Tomorrow we’ve managed to score a private tour through Jay Leno’s collection of cars and bikes so quite looking forward to that. Not sure what the photo restrictions will be but if we can take some then they will be posted here for all to see.
Heading home on the weekend so that will probably be all our news – thanks for reading and taking an interest.

Rob.

Today (Thursday) we are in Pleasanton near San Francisco for a the Goodguys West Coast National hot rod show that runs over the weekend with a swapmeet and display tomorrow and another show on Saturday. We traveled from Reno along some of the secondary highways, rather than the interstate, as we had a lead on some Model A parts for sale. When we turned up at the sellers place he showed us some of the stuff he had for sale which included a complete A coupe (drive away for $5500), there was a ’34 5 window that had been rodded, a collection of pickup bodies, doors, roadster bodies and numerous other parts lying around in a paddock as well. But, the really cool part was the cars that were in ‘the barn’ – a model A coupe that his grandfather had put an extended deck on during the war so he could get a greater petrol ration, ’57 Chev, ’46 Chev coupe, ’31 A pickup, ’32 Coupe. Unfortunately none of these were for sale even though they had been sitting idle for years (since 1944 for the A coupe).

We heard today that the Hogan, Martin & Rea team have set a new record on the salt with their car of 196mph. Unfortunately a couple of the other teams are out due to mechanical issues but a great effort put in by all regardless.

Getting near the end of our trip now with the goodguys event being our last scheduled stop. That pretty much means there is probably only another couple of posts of our adventures before we are back home and can share with some of you the facts and photos of the whole trip.

Cheers, Rob.

Two days have passed out on the salt and what an experience it has been. The place is quite indescribable you really have to see it to fully appreciate the scale and vastness of the place and I would imagine the eerie stillness when there aren’t hundreds of people honing all over the place.I haven’t been able to view all the kiwi teams but the Harris Family Racing (car 397) have run faster than the current record in their class – this means that they have qualified to try and break the record by backing up that run with another that must also be higher than the current record. If they do that then a new record has been created.The Kiwi-a-salt team (car 2761) has also qualified in their class to have a go at the record. These runs will be done in the first group to run tomorrow morning from 7am – so that will be another early start for us. Although we are all awake by then as the ground under the tent isn’t the softest in this part of the country.
There are plenty of amazing sights to see, the classic cars, the hotrods, the motorbikes, the race cars all buzzing around the place heading somewhere - all have a coating of salt stuck to their undersides or sprayed over them, but luckily because it isn’t wet it doesn’t seem to stick like it has done in the past.
Enjoy the pictures until I can get another update done.
Cheers, Rob.

Friday was a lazy day spent sitting by the pool and doing the laundry. Later in the afternoon we went to Summit Racing equipment who have a huge warehouse full of everything you could imagine for your car – their catalogue is 420pages and everything that is in it is in the warehouse!Every Friday evening they have a show in the carpark, apparently the numbers were down on usual probably because of Hot August Nights having just finished but there were still around 30 interesting cars turned up. We put the Oldsmobile on display and got a prize for the furthest travelled plus a pro choice award and a couple of raffle prizes – so it was a good evening.Got invited to a drag race meeting being held on Saturday that is on the way to Bonneville it will be interesting to see how the Americans do it.
Well, the drag racing was a non event. It seems that it is on but not starting till 5pm – we didn’t learn this until we got to the track and found it pretty much deserted. The track is in the middle of nowhere but close to the airforce base that was used in the film Top Gun. At least it was an opportunity to put the Oldsmobile on the starting line! Saturday night was spent in Winnemucca which is on the way to the salt flats. We were told of a rod run at the ‘Flying A Garage’ which is currently a workshop and small museum focusing on the 50’s, 60’s and 70s hot rods, customs and race cars with a two storey museum proper being built and ready for opening in 2009. This place was amazing – apart from the beers and BBQ going for all those who turned up it houses historic salt flat race cars, most of the Ed Roth cars and equipment he used while building custom hotrods, historic drag race cars plus the 40 or so people passing through who turned up for the evening and displayed their own hot rods etc in the car park. There are over 200 historic cars in the collection with most of them in storage, but these photos show some of those that were on display for us. Very cool place and recommended if you are ever in Winnemucca, it will be even better when the museum proper opens next year.

Sunday had us up early and on the road for Wendover which is where I am now posting this update. We had a couple of issue with the Oldsmobile getting here – run out of gas and trouble with flat battery but have made it OK and set up our tent in the camping ground. Not like a camping ground back home – not a blade of grass to be seen anywhere!This will be our base for the next couple of days as it about 10mi to the salt and there is no camping out there. It will be another early start tomorrow to watch the first runs of Speed Week as the salt is opened at dawn (about 5am) and obviously it’s cooler then as well.So, once we’ve been out tomorrow and seen what it’s all about I’ll post and update along with some more photos - till then, Rob.

Two of Ed Roths creations.

Jude got a ride back to the motel with the old feller in this black roadster - nice people all round.

Thursday today and we are back in civilization, Reno, after having spent the last few days tiki touring around a small part of the countryside. First stop was Virginia City which is basically still a cowboy town complete with the wooden boardwalks in front of all the buildings. After that we drove for a couple of hours and visited Bodi which is a genuine ghost town – complete with 80% of the buildings still intact and goods inside them just as they were left. The last person moved out in 1962 but most of them were long gone way before that. Next stop was Lake Tahoe which is up in the mountains at about 6000ft and we spent the night here in the tent – plenty of warnings about bears in the area. Very nice area with plenty of skifields for the winter sport and the lake for summer fun.
Heading off towards the salt from Saturday and again probably won’t have much in the way of internet access but will be back when I can.

Sunday was the final day of Hot August Nights and the event wound up with a grand parade down the main street of all the cars, led by those that had been judged best in their classes. We were invited by Chris and Diane Prince (Kiwi Restoration) to join them on a street corner where they were setup with a cooler of Bloody Marys and some deck chairs. The cars trundled by for over an hour and a half, during which time a TV camera was filming near us and he asked us for a comment which Noddy gave and was shown on the local news that evening. Jude had a shirt on with a NZ flag on it which caught the eye of a motorcycle cop cruising by, he stopped and the Americans with us started to panic as it is illegal to be drinking in a public place - they were thinking we would be fined, or worse. It turned out he was originally from Wellington and had been here since he was 13 but he was a good guy and we had a big conversation about policing in Nevada – much the same issues as at home but on a bigger scale.
After the parade it was all over except for the invite back to Chris and Dianes for a BBQ which was appreciated as it meant we could relax for the afternoon by drinking beer and eating steak that was about 2” thick.The plans for the next couple of days is to do some sightseeing before starting to head to Bonneville at the end of the week. It is likely that there will be limited internet access but will update this blog when I next get an opportunity.
Rob.

More car shows on Saturday, again there seemed to be a whole bunch of new stuff to see and again we only walked along the display that was on the main street. Also walked into the Big Boys Toys arena which is where most of the vendors had their displays of complete chassis, auto products, accessories and most anything else you could think of. Today is Sunday and the final days parade along the main street starts in about an hour or so, which I imagine will take awhile to file past as there are around 5000 cars registered and I think that most of them will be taking part. There was no street cruising last night instead it was held in the carpark of one of the casinos, the crowds of people watching was quite amazing along with the cars cruising around the circuit. Blood, Sweat and Tears were one of the bands playing as part of the entertainment and they were worth going to see – average age of the audience would have been about 103 and they had all bought their deckchairs, not many people dancing.Weather here is still hot and sunny every day, about 30 but does cool down a bit overnight. Got ourselves some camping gear and stuff for the trip to the salt and planning on starting to head out there on Tuesday.

Cheers, Rob.

Hello folks, Friday was spent walking around the swapmeet checking out all the goodies for sale. There was the usual domestic stuff but overall plenty of car parts and memorabilia to choose from except that some of the prices seemed to be a bit on the high side – like old number plates for $40US each. There were also lots of things that were real cheap – a complete set of American Racing wheels for $329US including caps and nuts!!The complete cars for sale section was broken into two halves, with the cheaper everyday ‘classics’ outside in the car park and the high dollar show cars inside the stadium. Great variety and definitely something for everyone, depending on the size of your wallet!
Each of the major casinos have a evening car show in their carpark so we went to one of them on Thursday night. It was full of all sorts of cars again from Rat Rods to Show cars, Classics to daily drivers and all those in between. Each night there is also a night cruise and our hotel is right on the street that is used for the cruising so last night was spent standing on the side of the road watching the cars roll by. Most enjoyable.

Thursday today and unfortunately we’ve had to cancel the Hot Rod build project. We’ve had trouble catching up the preparation time that we lost with delayed flights and vehicle issues before leaving LA and the drive up here. There have been issues with getting to the swapmeets, enough parts and equipment ready along with the plans in Craigs bag being lost by the airline. We gave it everything we had right up to the point of realizing it just wasn’t going to happen. We got the car mostly mocked up, chassis, front end was almost complete, engine was in place and body had been cut ready for mounting. We ran into issues that just couldn’t be sorted in time, so a team decision was made to stop before we all got too stressed out.
The promoters of the Hot August Nights event have been brilliant and have shown us endless support and understanding through this time and are happy that we remain in Reno for the rest of the shows. We have been greatly blessed by meeting some incredible people who have helped us along the way. Chris Prince of Kiwi Fabrication offered the use of his workshop and resources and was encouraging us along the way to keep going right up till the point we realized it wasn’t achievable. Jim Eagle and his wife of Rod Bods have also been incredibly patient with us using their resources etc.
Our plan now is to enjoy the Hot August Nights events, still go to Bonneville speed week and check out the other car events along the way as planned. This blog will still be updated as we go so check back in and see what’s happening.

Cheers, Rob.

Hello folks – been a couple of days of action here in the US with this the first chance to get to an internet connection. Today is Tuesday and we have finally made it to Reno after a few dramas along the way. Monday we aimed for an early start and did get away at a reasonable time, however the battery in the navman went flat and the cigarette lighter in the Oldsmobile isn’t working so it was a visit to the local Pep Boys (Repco on steroids) where we got an auxiliary lighter and wired that into the car so at least we could find our way around this town. We then headed to Grant Downings workshop where he makes the drag car chassis for his Funny Car and those for Del Worsham as well – this place is amazing with about 4 drag cars in the workshop, all the chassis making gear, a bar complete with 2 land bowling alley upstairs for after work drinks and a methanol burning V8 powered ex drag race motor mounted to a couple of mixing bowls to mix marguaritas with!! Grant kindly bent up a roll cage for us as this is a requirement of running on the salt in our class.Next was to head out of town for Bakersfield where we were to meet Dwayne Jones (Kiwi Konnection) and pick up some stuff that he had stored for us – unfortunately heading out of town the Olds had a blowout on the freeway, in 4 lanes of traffic, so we rolled along the edge of the road till the next off ramp where there was enough room to park and change the tyre. The spare didn’t fit, neither did the jack nor wheel brace so we borrowed one from a local then Craig and Noddy headed off with the rim to get another tyre. A couple of hours behind schedule we finally got going again which of course meant we didn’t get to Bakersfield until late. Check into a motel and try for some sleep – except it is damn hot, around 90-95F which I think is low thirties.Tuesday was another early start with a visit to Dwaynes to collect our bits and pieces. Then hit the road heading for Reno where all the will be taking place. It was an all day drive to cover the miles to get here, including a stop for another blowout on the Olds – this time we replaced all 3 remaining tyres which of course cost us another couple of hours travel time but the good thing was while we were waiting we headed across the road to a bar called the Doghouse Saloon, owned by Tom Kimble who thought what we were trying to do was so cool he gave us the sign of his bar off the wall to mount somehwere in the car!!

Once back on the road we got to Reno with only one further incident coming off the freeway, running out of gas - luckily there was a station close and it was only a short push to get some more. Now we are in the hotel – Club Cal Neva, who are supplying the rooms as sponsorship – for the rest of the week and the first thing on most of our minds is food and sleep ready for tomorrows thrash getting ourselves setup to start the build on Thursday.

Saturday was unfortunately a pretty unproductive day as we had a few issues with the pickup truck that we had to get sorted out so didn’t get a chance to do some of the things we had planned.

Saturday night was a visit to The Cowboy Bar which is a famous C&W and line dancing bar in LA (apparently), an entertaining night was had including meeting some more people who are going up to Bonneville. Day three (Sunday) has seen us spend another day in LA. First stop was Dagels Street Rods where we met Gary and Michelle Dagel and picked up some parts and had a look around. Gary showed us around the workshop and explained how the chassis are made and what he is up to at Dagels Street Rods.
Next stop was to pick up a 1960 Oldsmobile, Super Eighty Eight that has been bought for a buyer back home. A real nice tidy original condition car which was good as it meant we could now uncram the pickup and 4 of us started riding in the olds.This afternoon we went to the National Hot Rod Association museum in Pomona and as we walked in the door ‘Ala Kart’ was sitting on display. Great place to visit with lots of historic drag and race cars on display along with some classic customs as well.